Storytellersunplugged

-- Bev Vincent I have published something on the order of fifty short stories since I began writing seriously at the beginning of the millennium. Some of the early stories appeared in what are disparagingly referred to as “for the love” (or “4theLuv”) markets. A few were published in “royalty only” anthologies (which are but a smidgen better than 4theLuv markets in that in rare cases some of them have delivered a pittance in revenue—my current record is about $18). Most of ... Read More

As I said earlier, the most basic purpose of book promotion is to let people know that your book exists, why they might want to pick up a copy, and where they can get it. Some authors aren't keen on promotion. They might make a brief announcement on their blog, webpage, or mailing list, then put their noses back to grindstone, focusing on The Work. They rely mostly on the kindness of strangers, friends, and their publishers to get the word ... Read More

YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS!   The title of my entry today has been shamelessly stolen from a book called (what else?) YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS. Edited by Ron Hansen and Jim Shepard, it's published by Harper Perennial, and is subtitled CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN WRITERS INTRODUCE STORIES THAT HELD THEM IN AWE.  You probably already have a pretty good idea of what the work offers, but Donna Seaman's BOOKLIST review will give you the details:  Writers are passionate readers because literature is an ongoing dialogue. And ... Read More

The Great Blow-Off-Your-Deadline Award **awarded with bitter grimaces and squeezed buttocks to those writers who fail to read the fine print and fulfill their commitments** For the past few weeks, I've been working toward a May 30 deadline in an attempt to finish a 70,000 word novelization. My publishers are trying to coordinate the on-shelf date with the film's in-theaters date. With four weeks left to go and 26K words under my belt, I thought I was doing swimmingly--which, I guess, means I was ... Read More

SNAPSHOTS: 20th Century Mother Daughter Fiction is an anthology I edited with the extraordinary Joyce Carol Oates. It was a joyous experience and, for those who might be interested, it remains in print. Here’s the story I wrote for the book: “Everything Old is New Again by Janet Berliner “Thank you for coming. “Yes, brunch was a good idea, wasn’t it? Thank you for coming. “We’ll get together soon.” “Thank you for—” —Leaving. Thank you for leaving. Don’t call me, I’ll call you. Jenny shut the door, leaned ... Read More

by Alexandra Sokoloff I have to warn you, this month’s post is going to seem a bit radical to some of you. You may even feel, well, horror, at what I’m about to tell you. I’m going to talk about my secret favorite convention. And no, it’s not WHC, or WFC, or World Con or Horrorfind or DragonCon or any of those. It’s the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention. (I’ll wait for the gasps to subside…) But I think it’s important for people in the ... Read More

(WHEN IT ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FUCKING WAIT ONE MOMENT LONGER) By John Skipp Dear class – Not to put too fine a point on it: I can’t play with you guys this month. My ace collaborator and fellow SU instructor Cody Goodfellow and I have a new book to hand in, one month from now, and it’s still got a whoooooooole lot of work left to do. So here’s your assignment for today, should you choose to accept it: 1) Take out your most pressing project: the one ... Read More

Put yourself in their shoes. Would you have survived? Could you hack it under such conditions? Oh, don't pretend you've never thought about it. I mean, how did Dickens pull it off? What about Austen or Bronte? They didn't have laptops for mobility, or word processing for easy editing, or iPods for drowning out the screaming babies and clattering horseshoes, or...Well, for that matter, they didn't have thermostat-controlled work environments or soft reliable lighting. I write at a desk upstairs, separated from my bed ... Read More

by Janet Berliner This month, writing through a period of dreadful pain, I wrote my first children’s novel. Despite the obvious adversity, I thoroughly enjoyed the work. Apparently my editor did, too, given that She “couldn’t put it down,” called it a book for kids from eight to eighty, and sent a check at once. I have four novels-in-progress. I pulled up the one I had thought I would finish next, but my thoughts went elsewhere. What I really needed was to take a ... Read More

Being a cross-genre kind of girl myself, I seem always to be preaching to other authors to think more broadly about other genres their books might fit into, and about how to promote themselves in other genres. This kind of thinking and marketing is particularly important for authors in the horror genre because, let’s face it, horror is not exactly a popular book genre these days. In fact, I’m not sure it could be any LESS popular. ... Read More